Members of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) wear protective gear at the isolation ward of the Donka Hospital in Conakry (AFP Photo / Cellou Binani) / AFP

Russian virologists arrived in Guinea to help local doctors in their fight against a massive Ebola outbreak, which infected at least 1,323 people and so far resulted in 729 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

“Our virologists
arrived in Guinea and started their work,” spokesman for
Russia's Ministry of Health Oleg Salagai told Itar-Tass.

Academician virologists Victor Maleev from the Central Research
Institute of Epidemiology and Professor Mikhail Shchelkanov from
the Research Institute of Virology, arrived in the country
immediately after the World Health Organisation warned that the Ebola outbreak is spreading
quicker than efforts to contain the disease. Both Russian
scientists specialize in investigating the causes of epidemics
and outbreaks of viruses.

Meanwhile the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies (IFRC) emphasized the immediate need to tackle
the Ebola outbreak in West African countries.

“The Red Cross or Red Crescent is extremely worried that the
situation is spiralling out of control,” the IFRC's
emergency health coordinator Panu Saaristo said in a statement.

“The response capacity and resources of the government and
humanitarian aid agencies in the affected countries are already
stretched beyond the limit, and the virus continues to spread,
making this the deadliest outbreak of Ebola ever,” Saaristo
said, stressing that the spread of the virus can only be
contained with the support of the international community.

On Friday, the WHO and the West African nations affected by the
Ebola virus announced a joint $100 million response plan to
tackle the spread of the deadly disease. The WHO also warned of
the need for an urgent response.

“This outbreak is moving faster than our efforts to control
it,” WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said Friday. “If the
situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences can be
catastrophic in terms of lost lives but also severe socioeconomic
disruption and a high risk of spread to other countries,”
Chan said.

As of July 27, Ebola virus infection rate in Guinea, Liberia,
Sierra Leone and Nigeria stood at 1,323, including 729 deaths,
according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Ebola is a
haemorrhagic fever with a fatality rate of up to 90 percent.
Chances of survival are higher if patients seek professional
medical help as soon as symptoms become apparent.

Symptoms begin with a fever and throat and muscle pains and then
develop into nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, which is accompanied
by the decreased functioning of the liver and kidneys. Many
people at this stage also have problems with bleeding. The only
treatment available is either by oral rehydration therapy or
intravenous fluids but very few of those infected survive as
there is no vaccine.

Ebola was first discovered in 1976 in what is currently the
Democratic Republic of Congo. The largest-ever outbreak before
was in 2000-01 in Uganda, with 425 cases, about half of whom
died, according to WHO estimates.